Something funny happened after game four of the Western Conference Finals. After the Lakers escaped San Antonio for the three games to one series lead, for the very first time I truly believed the Lakers could actually win the NBA Championship. Despite their marvelous play throughout the regular season and postseason, the specter of Laker teams from the last three years hung over in my mind. At some point the Lakers would fold and......

Spurs looking like they can't wait to go home. AP/Kevork Djansezian I didn’t have a good feeling about game two. I really thought the Spurs would come out angry after blowing a 20-point third quarter lead in game one. But I didn’t think the anger would amount to a three-year old’s temper tantrum. After watching Jordan Farmar’s block of Ime Udoka on a fast-break opportunity in the second quarter: Everyone in the world would......

Luke Walton Kissing the Black Mamba Kobe Bryant. AP/Mark J. Terrill I am a little confused right now. I don’t know whether to be concerned that the Lakers fell to a 20-point deficit in the third quarter of game one of the NBA Western Conference Finals against the reigning champions San Antonio Spurs. Or should I be confident that the Lakers can overcome any deficit like they did in game one to get the......

Red Sox 4, Angels 0 - Josh Beckett was good. Scary good. He threw eight strikeouts and retired 19 in a row in a complete game shutout, the third of his playoff career. That put him second on the all-time list, one behind Christy Mathewson and tied with Whitey Ford and Mordecai Brown. In other words, only one other pitcher has been this good in about 100 years. He was also the only pitcher to......

If you see John Cusack in the stands, someone's in the playoffs or world series. You might recall the Chicago-native in the bleachers of Wrigley Field when the Cubs had a healthy Kerry Wood and Mark Prior and if not for Bartman would have made it further than the playoffs, and then a few years later you may have heard about him wanting to get tickets to see the White Sox as they played......

Ducks 2, Red Wings 1, OT - Down 1-0 with a few ticks left on the clock, Scott Niedermayer hit the back of the net to forced OT. Tweve minutes later Teemu Selanne scored and gave the Ducks a 3-2 series lead over Detroit. Anaheim could win the Western Conference Finals at home on Tuesday night. Angels 4, Dodgers 1 - LAnaheim swept the Freeway Series by a combined score of 19-4. On Sunday Kelvim......

Dodgers 10, Reds 5 - All nine Dodger starters had at least one hit or run scored, giving the team moms something to be proud of. Cincinnati's Ken Griffey, Jr. didn't disappoint, either, going deep on Mother's Day for the sixth time in his career. Ducks 4, Red Wings 3, OT - The Ducks evened the Western Conference Finals against Detroit at a game each and claimed home ice advantage heading into the next two......

D.C. United 2, Chivas USA 1 - The MLS gets no respect. ESPN and SI.com lump it in with their general soccer coverage. Yahoo! Sports has them listed just below the WNBA. They might not party like their Euro counterparts, but LAist.com is willing to give Chivas USA top billing tonight. So here it goes ... after a scoreless first half, winless D.C. United found the net twice (the second on a penalty kick) and......

Damn... Almost there. So close... Well for the first half anyway. Then the runaway sports coupe that is the Phoenix Suns put it into 6th gear and left the Clippers in the dust winning the decisive game 7 127-107 to advance to the Western Conference Finals... again. The three days rest was enough to rejuvenate the engine, Steve Nash, which in turn rejuvenated the whole team. Nash went for 29 points and 11 assists,......

Well we wanted it... didnt we? After a back and forth series that EITHER team should could have won, another big game seven is set in Arizona to decide if the Clippers or the Phoenix Suns will play in the Western Conference Finals. Elton Brand has been everything and more for the Clippers. Averaging 30 and 10 for the Clips this series, he has the entire Suns frontcourt sweating in their sleep. Sam-I-Am has......

Unless by some freakin' sweet good fortune the Lakers and the Clips meet up in the Playoffs (we haven't done our post-season bracketology yet but we're pretty sure that would mean they both made it to the Western Conference Finals and weather reports from Hell would be all about a blizzard), tonight is the last time they will meet this season. Your Los Angeles Clippers can win the season series for the first time......

Every now and then Elgin Baylor makes a good trade. It doesn't happen often. It happened during the 2000 NBA Draft when the Clippers underwent a dramatic makeover that brought them Corey Maggette, Darius Miles, Quentin Richardson, and others from the Orlando Magic. It also happened during the 2001 NBA Draft when they effectively dealt Tyson Chandler for Elton Brand. And it happened it again yesterday. The Clippers acquired Sam Cassell and a first......